band-pistolita

Pistolita tour diary

For a week in September, piano-based indie rockers Pistolita took to the road with Saves The Day for a series of sold-out shows. Here’s what they saw, in words and pictures. Learn more at www.pistolita.com.

Day One: Clifton, NY

09/19/06

We showed up to the venue around 3:30 to greet Saves The Day with hugs and high fives. Once they finished their soundcheck, we loaded to the stage and got the merch set up. Then we had some downtime before the show to talk and hang out. The show started around 7:30 and local band the Night Life opened the show. Next up was us and we couldn’t have asked for a better first day of touring: The crowd was amazing and it was great to be back on tour with Saves The Day. Last but not least was Saves The Day and they put on an awesome show that got the crowd pumped to hear songs that ranged from “Can’t Slow Down” all the way to “Sound The Alarm.” We capped off the night with all four of us selling merch and talking to fans. We headed to the hotel excited for day 2.

Day Two: Allentown, PA

9/20/06

Today, we played the Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA. Takumi, Saves The Day’s tour manager, got lost and somehow ended up in New York with the Penske truck containing all of STD’s equipment. Thankfully he found his way and everyone hurried through soundchecks and got everything ready just in time for the doors to open. The backstage area of the venue was downstairs and we shared the room with everyone. Justin dominated Cory 21 to 10 on the ping pong table that was set up backstage. We ended up going on stage around 8:15 and it was awesome to see some familiar faces. It’s crazy to watch our fanbase grow. Being in a band and having people show interest in what you’re doing is an awesome feeling. After STD’s set, we packed up and headed to our friend’s house and called it a night.

Day Three: Farmingdale, NY

9/21/06

Aww, the Crazy Donkey. This show was pretty rad. We got to rub elbows with a lot of old friends. We rolled into the show a little late because we’re really f-ing fashionable and like to set our stuff up real quick. The Crazy Donkey is called the Crazy Donkey because they have these CRAZY projectors that played the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre before we played. We opened this show with “Age” and “Oliver” and pumped the children full of “catchy indie rock”.

The great thing about opening is the time that you get to party hardy backstage after you’re done. Max of Say Anything, our label and agent, Indy (Say Anything’s Tour Manager) who once stage-dove after me when I fought a kid at our home show (hahahaha, I love you, Indy), and some awesome friends from the Warped Tour were hanging out with us in the basement of this place. There was a lovely spread of PB and J, snacks, fruit and multiple refreshing beverages. Not to mention it was David of STD’s birthday, and we hid his birthday cake in our van until it was time for the sing-a-long.

During the Saves the Day set, we met some kids at the merch table who had been following the tour around and offered them guest list spots to the next show. Normally I don’t remember names but these two stuck with me, so Rob and Jessica: Yo. What’s up. Saves the Day played all the classics and I can’t stress enough how good the new record is! After the show we discussed coming up to Chris’ house (where Sound The Alarm was recorded) after the tour to record some new songs. So hopefully we’ll have some new stuff to show off towards the front of next year. After all of our goodbyes we headed off to Brooklyn with our amazing friend Wendy. We spent a half-hour trying to park the van in a straight line and headed up to her apartment. We ate her food, rummaged through her CD collection, and spoke way too loud till 3 a.m. while other folks were sleeping. In the morning, before we left, we discovered Geoff of Thursday was one of those sleeping folks, whoops! 🙂 Trying to avoid getting a ticket we grabbed some bagels across the street and headed south to Lancaster, PA. Bam!

   

 

Day Four: Lancaster, PA

9/22/06

Tonight we played the Chameleon Club and it was totally bad-ass. We’ve played here once before on the last day of the Say Anything tour, so we had a few fans that had seen us there, and there were actually a few kids who were seeing us for the 5th time. They knew every word to our songs too so it was pretty rad. The venue is in a pretty bad-ass part of town, and before the movie, Conor, Justin and I went to go see Jackass 2 while Cory went to the pro drum shop. When we got there we loaded in and then we headed to the Mexican food place across the street, Senorita Burrita, with David from Saves the Day because we got free burritos there. The burritos were pretty good, but I got cucumbers in mine and immediately regreted that decision.

The first band that played was Kingsfoil, and they were pretty good- so you guys should all go check them out. Then we went on, and the crowd was super loud and responsive, so we had a blast. Our friends Nick and Brendan from Circa Survive showed up too along with our friend Danessa, so we were all pretty stoked because we hadn’t seen them in awhile. After we loaded out and right before Saves the Day started, Cory and I got the bright idea to kick waterbottles down the street and take pictures of it. So about 3 pictures in, Cory decides to sit behind the hand rail of a little set of 3 stairs, directly in my path, and right when I kicked the bottle, it flew directly at him, and hit him square in the nuts. As soon as that happened I dropped to the ground and Cory and I started laughing harder than I knew I could laugh. I wish we would’ve been filming that one. Haha. Saves the Day were amazing like always. All the kids knew all the words. Everyone at that show was super rad and the kids in Lancaster are all around some of the nicest people ever.

After the show we were all at the merch selling ours and Saves the Day’s merch and it was soooo clustered and busy! It was fun though. Saves the Day hired us for this tour to do their merch, so we got pretty good at it. So after the rush and packing up all the merch, all of us headed to the Senorita Burrita. Across the street Conor found a piano inside, and everyone huddled around while he played requests. It was pretty funny. Danessa and Nick got some huge nachos so we all ate some of those and then parted ways. Pete and Takumi from Saves the Day followed us to our hotel in Baltimore because Takumi had an early flight, and we kept getting lost trying to get out of the city. They followed us on a crazy rat race, but we finally made it out 🙂

Day Five: Baltimore, MD

9/23/06

This is how we play in the ghetto. Baltimore was bonkers. Located in the thug district, the Ottobar is a charming club featuring no guardrails, no bouncers, and a sold-out crowd of rabid Saves the Day fans. This show was our best of the tour, and the craziest to watch STD play. We spent a lot of the night at the merch table with almost no shirt sizes left and ended up convincing muscular dudes that a youth large would fit on them. Hahaha. Because we were set up next to the bar, we dealt with a few funny drunk locals trying to put on Saves the Day tank tops and spilling drinks. Baltimore is always great times and crazy people, a couple of which I ended up in a picture booth with where some pictures were taken that I hope don’t end up on the internet. Oops.

>From the merch area we had a great view of STD’s set, which was perfect. Kids flew all over the place and eventually knocked Chris’ headstock hopelessly out of tune, so for the last song he set it down and sang “Firefly” out with the crowd. We had a lot of friends come out to Baltimore: Jason who flew out from Arizona; Rob and Jessica from everywhere; and backstage, Fran and Brian of From Autumn to Ashes. Fran and Brian were in Baltimore recording the new record and we ended up at their studio recording some pretty ugly jams into the wee hours of the morning. The studio they’re at is amazing, and in the live room we thought we sounded like rock gods. But when we heard the playback we decided it was for the best if no one but us ever heard it. After the jam we got brave and took a ladder up onto the roof, from which Baltimore actually looks beautiful, and we took turns seeing who could stand closer to the edge. We hung out there all night and had a great time, and I hope we run into those boys again. After all the craziness, our heads were a little spinny and we drove the streets of Baltimore for an hour completely lost and when we finally got back to the hotel we crashed. Next stop, Indiana, PA.

Day Six: Indiana, PA

9/24/06

After checking out of our hotel in Baltimore, we began our five-hour drive to Indiana, PA. Not knowing load-in was at 2 p.m., we showed up at 4 p.m. (casually late as usual). The venue loaders took care of our equipment while we checked out the venue/campus. I don’t think any of us knew about this college before we got there, but Indiana University of Pennsylvania is a beautiful college. While Saves The Day soundchecked, we set up our equipment, handled merch and talked to local kids about the area. We knew one girl who was helping run the show. She had came to our show in Altoona, PA, before we met up with STD. After STD was done soundchecking, it was our turn to linecheck. The show only consisted of us and STD (no local band was needed because it was a college show). Being the last day of the tour, everyone was sort of quiet. We took the stage at 6:30 p.m. Playing early shows can be weird because the sun is still out! We had a lot of fun anyways. STD didnt take much time to get onstage. They played all the favorites and the crowd loved it. Chris asked the crowd how many kids had never heard of them before. He was suprised to see that most all the crowd has seen and/or heard of them before. They ended the set with “At Your Funeral” followed by “Firefly”. One of the best endings of the whole tour. After selling merch, we met up with STD and said our goodbyes. We had such a great time touring with them and hope to hang out and tour again!

   

 

Categories: